Going to school is a normal thing. From ages five to eighteen, children are expected to go to school and learn the things that will prepare them for the rest of their life that lies ahead. There is a set curriculum for the schools so that the children can all learn the same things, which creates an even playing field in the future. Due to the importance of all children staying on the same page with their academics, the idea of standardized tests was introduced. The purpose of these tests are to measure the academic achievement of the children in school on an even platform. The government wanted to make sure that every school was performing at a certain level so that all children were learning equally. It depends on the exact version of standardized test, but they are generally distributed to those in elementary school and those in their early years of high school. The results of the tests are compared against results from students in other schools, which then can be used to rank the schools academic standing. The schools academic standing can then be used to help make decisions about what is best for the achievement of the school, teachers and children. While this seems like a beneficial part of our school system, it is not benefiting the children as much as it intends to. Standardized tests are doing more harm than good when it comes to helping the children strive to the best of their ability. Based off of my personal experience in a school system that relied on standardized tests for their academic feedback, I believe that they are not an accurate representation of schools and are also not the proper way to examine student's strengths and weaknesses. The tests ask questions that require special preparation in the classroom, it is not based off of everyday learning. I have witnessed my teachers stressed about being able to prepare us for our standardized test while also having enough time in the school year to cover the rest of the required materials, since the two do not completely overlap. On top of the teachers finding the tests stressful, the students also experience stress around the test. One of my friends suffered from extreme test anxiety so to make her take yet another test, in addition to all of the other tests to measure her knowledge of the curriculum we were learning, seemed unfair. They say that these tests are meant to judge the teachers and the school, but how do you tell a child that just worked so hard on a test that their poor grade is not a big deal and does not mean anything? Standardized testing in schools comes with more negative outcomes than it does positive outcomes. These negative outcomes include, but are not limited to, taking away from valuable classroom time in order to focus on studying for these tests, a "one size fits all" test that does not account for any kind of diversity between the students, and an end result that does not measure the qualities of the student that we should be focused on. 

Parents send their child to school with the expectation that they will learn interesting things, find their passion, and have fun while doing it all. The school systems develop their own set of curriculum standards that they expect the teachers to meet by the end of the school year and is intended to take all one hundred and eighty days that the students are in school. The standardized tests have their own set of requirements, and much to the teacher's disappointment, they do not always follow those set by the school. Since there are only so many hours in a school day, choices have to be made. The standardized tests typically focus on mathematics, reading and writing, and is generally based on hard facts rather than creative thinking. Due to the nature of the test, teachers at an elementary school in North Carolina "went from being involved in hands-on instruction in science several days a week, to using worksheets and relying on the text book for choral reading," or even worse, "teaching no science at all" (Jones, 201). Science is no less important of a subject than mathematics, reading, and writing just because it is not included on the test. Even the subjects that are on the test suffer from this kind of preparation. An elementary school in Ohio loses six weeks of their usual reading and writing in order to prepare for the kind of reading and writing that they will see on the test. What was once "independent reading, read-alouds and word study is replaced with repeated practice answering multi-paragraph essays in less time" than they will ever have to know how, other than for the test (Strauss, Web). It is imperative that children, especially at the elementary school age, get a break from the textbooks and worksheets and get to experience hands-on learning and exercise their creative problem solving. There is no excuse for a test that forces teachers to give up parts of their curriculum. It is no surprise that there is not enough time in the schedule. The Washington post released that eight graders, who are thought to take the most standardized tests, "spend an average of 25.3 hours taking standardized tests" (Layton, Web). That number does not include the number of hours required to prepare for these tests or the number of hours that a student spends taking other quizzes and tests that are required in order to keep up with the curriculum. Before you know it, these students are doing more testing and test preparation then they are actually learning. Between the time spent preparing to test and testing, students no longer have a passion to learn new things. Steve Kramer, who is a superintendent at an elementary school in Ohio, wrote an open letter that included his thoughts on how these tests diminished a students love for learning. Kramer writes that the teachers strive to show the children how fun and magical learning can be, but that is invalidated when test preparation begins and "students can no longer talk with their friends to puzzle out a math solution, or consult the word wall to help them understand unfamiliar words" (Strauss, Web). These students are young and they should be curious to learn new things instead of dreading test preparation when they can no longer turn to their peers for support and are suddenly on their own. Learning is a collaborative experience and that is what makes it enjoyable. 

Every child should have the ability to learn and achieve, regardless of certain things that may set them apart from other children. Most schools have the ability to adapt to the diversity that is present in their classroom so that each student has an equal opportunity to achieve. Standardized tests do not cater to individual students, instead they are a "one size fits all" test that proves to be biased. The worst part is that the reasons that these children are being set apart and therefore aren't achieving as high is not based on things that they can control. Growing up, a child should not be judged off of the socioeconomic status of their families, for that is not something that defines who they are or something that they have the ability to change. This is not something that should effect standardized test scores, but it does. According to journalist Peter Sacks, "one can make a good guess about a child's standardized test scores simply by looking at how many degrees her parents have and at what kind of car they drive" (Zwick, 23). If this test is supposed to judge the achievement of a school by looking at the knowledge of the students, then the amount of money that the child comes from should not be related to the results. On the topic of things that students cannot control, skin color is also something that alters the test results and unfortunately not for the best. A discouraged Janet Helms draws attention to the fact that African Americans "historically, as a group they never have obtained scores as high as their White counterparts in the same settings" (Helms, 187). The test is completely biased if it has the ability to single out a racial group in such a way. Clearly, the test cannot be considered an accurate representation of the school if each student does not have the same ability to make a good score. This also effects the students with learning disabilities. Teachers are able to tailor their instructions based on the individual child's learning style, but the standardized test simply does not care if you cannot read as well as your classmate or if math does not come as easily to you. Kramer expresses his concern over the issue informing the public that "for the first time all school year, all the students are expected to read independently at their given grade level" (Strauss, Web). A teacher cannot control whether or not a student learns at the same place as others, all they can do is help that student get the most out of his or her learning. Therefore, providing this student with a test that is intended to reflect on the teachers does not make any sense given the fact that a learning disability is neither the students nor the teachers fault. 

For a test that requires so much time and preparation, one would think that it would measure important aspects of a student. To the disappointment of many students, parents and teachers, standardized tests focus too closely on the specifics to reflect any meaningful information about the student's knowledge. The Phi Delta Kappa points out that "standardizes tests typically emphasize discrete facts and skills because they are easy to measure" while they make sure to "avoid questions that require students to analyze and synthesize information at higher levels" (Jones, 200). If a student is taking a standardized test in the third grade, what is important to get out of it is not the specific definition of a word that they will never see again but the ability to look at a question and use critical thinking skills to answer it. It is more about the student's capability of memorizing and then regurgitating information. In order to help her students prepare for the vocabulary section of standardized tests, one teacher "would pass out an alphabetized list of words students were to "look up" and learn for a Friday quiz" (Nilsen, 31). Even the preparation for these tests is meaningless. This teacher knew that it was simply memorization so she did not even bother to teach it herself. These tests should be a reflection of what is taught in the classroom because that is what is important. The standardized test is not thinking about the long term benefits that the students could receive from taking a test when they form their questions. All that they care about is that they will have a number to report to their school that is supposedly what they consider to be meaningful. There are many qualities of a student that are more meaningful than their ability to regurgitate facts. Anya Kamenetz wrote a book called "The Test" and she believes that in addition to the academic subjects that are not included on the test, such as science and social studies, "there's also 21st century skills, creativity, collaboration, you can't show those with an individual putting marks on a piece of paper" (Youtube). If standardized tests are going to be used to judge the students, then the students deserved to be judged based off of skills that will help them succeed in the future. A student might not be able to solve an algebraic expression but that is fine, he does not have to be a mathematician. But what you cannot see based off of his wrong answer is that if he had the ability to collaborate with his peers then they would have had a chance to come up with the correct answer together. If these students plan to go into the work force someday, they need to make sure that they are able to work well with others because there are no standardized test like situations once you get that far. An alternative to standardized testing, and one that will provide more significant results, is the idea of documentation. Mara Krechevsky defines documentation as "the practice of observing, recording, interpreting, and sharing through a variety of media the processes and products of learning in order to deepen learning" (Krechevsky, 65). Documentation focuses on leaning and, through the interactions between teachers and students, how this learning can become better. A goal of standardized testing is to hold the teachers and schools accountable for the learning that goes on. Documentation shares the same goal. Using documentation, "teachers document student learning, [then] they are able to compare what they intended to with that with what actually took place, and use that information to make decisions about what happens next" (Krechevsky, 66). It is a way for the teachers to figure out what works best for their students through trial and error, which will lead to a deeper understanding of the materials being taught. 

Despite all of the reasons that standardized tests are not the best choice, there is some logic behind the idea. A students knowledge is valuable, and it is important to know that all students are obtaining a similar level of valuable knowledge. For a teacher to make sure that the students are learning as they are supposed to, they will give quizzes and tests throughout the year. The problem with that is not every teacher teaches the same way or creates the same kind of test, therefore "a pop quiz given to one algebra class may be unsuitable for a class covering the same material at a different pace or in an alternate sequence" (Zucker, 2). If student received an A in one class that does not mean that the same student would receive the same grade if he had a different teacher. Standardized tests were introduced as a way to compare test scores while removing teacher bias so instead "they assess students based on a similar set of questions, are given under nearly identical testing conditions, and are graded by a machine or blind reviewer" (Churchill, Web). The results then allow the state to compare different schools and their achievements. This is crucial because "outside of standardized test results, no objective method exists for policymakers to identify either poor-performing schools needing intervention or high-performing schools deserving rewards" (Churchill, Web). Those schools that are underachieving deserve the chance to receive help and those schools that are overachieving deserve recognition. Standardized tests give the state the ability to do these things and make their schools the best that they can be. 

Parents send their children to school in hopes that they will receive a good, well rounded education that will help them get into college and will one day help them get a job. In order for this to become a reality, we need to spend more time actually education the children and less time prepping them for a pointless test that will ultimately not benefit their future. School should be a safe environment where the students receive equal education. It is simply not fair for them to be forced to take standardizes tests that have shown proof that race and socioeconomic status negatively effects the results. Children go to school so that they can make a name for themselves, and they should not be held back by things they cannot change. Schools should be more focused on the personal qualities that the students bring to the table rather than their backgrounds. Standardized tests should also focus more on the personal qualities. It is important that a student be creative, driven, determined, and collaborative for them to succeed in life and a standardized test is unable to recognize those features. When this child has grown up and retired, it is more important that he or she is able to communicate with others and problem solve instead of performing the quadratic equation. In order to make sure that the students of America are prepared for their futures, we need to be focused on the bigger picture and unfortunately the standardized tests are too focused on the smaller picture. 

